Gary Henshall 65

Description

An “evil and foul” man who sexually abused a little girl in North Yorkshire has been jailed for 12 years.

Gary Henshall recorded himself sexually abusing the girl in the middle of the night, York Crown Court heard.

Tom Jackson, prosecuting, said the light on the paedophile’s phone would wake her, and he persisted in what he was doing as she tried to stop him, by moving away from him.

“He is the most selfish, evil and foul old man,” the victim said in a personal statement.

She said the abuse had affected her mental health so much it had drastically affected her education.

Mr Jackson said the girl eventually stopped the abuse by telling her family about it.

Following Henshall’s arrest, police found a video he had made of himself alone performing a sex act, making sexual comments about children and pretending to be a six-year-old girl.

He had previous convictions from the 1980s for child sexual abuse.

After the girl had stood up to Henshall, the paedophile had “manipulated” and delayed the court process by initially denying the charges, then pleading guilty, then trying unsuccessfully to change his plea back to not guilty and finally not turning up to his sentencing hearing, so that North Yorkshire Police had to locate him and fetch him from Leeds.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said Henshall “twisted the knife” by not turning up to court.

Henshall, 65, formerly of the Caravan Park at Scalm Park, Wistow near Selby, and later of Batley, pleaded guilty to five sexual assaults and was given a 17-year extended prison sentence, consisting of a 12-year prison term plus five years extended prison licence.

For the rest of his life he will be on the sex offenders’ register and subject to a sexual harm prevention order to protect all children from him and a restraining order to protect the girl including after she becomes an adult.

For Henshall, Kevin Batch said the defendant understood the “devastation” he had brought the girl and no words would come “anywhere to alleviate that level of distress and suffering”.

Detective Constable Sophie Wilson, of North Yorkshire Police, who led the investigation, said: “This has been a very difficult case, and I cannot praise the victim and her family enough for standing up for what is right and seeking justice against Henshall.

“Henshall also dragged out their suffering by repeatedly changing his plea. The judge’s intervention ensured that justice has been served, and I hope the victim and her family can draw strength from the outcome at court.”